On a recent morning in Essex, Vt., it was still dark; just after 6:00. But the Hamlin household was already wide awake. With five kids, there was a lot of hair to style, teeth to brush, backpacks to stuff, and even cats to chase.

But as New England Cable News learned on a visit with the family, none of the children are biologically Brenda Hamlin's. "Who'd have thought we'd have adopted three grandchildren and be raising nieces?" Brenda Hamlin asked.

She already raised five kids of her own, but then took in three step-grandchildren, a niece, and a great-niece when their parents couldn't care for them. "I really appreciated it," said niece Brianna Caron, a high school junior. "It's really nice."

Hamlin said some of the children now in her care were born addicted to drugs. "If she didn't adopt me, I don't know what I'd be doing right now," grandson Dyllan Hamlin, a seventh grader, said.

Folks like Brenda Hamlin are often called "kinship parents," bringing up relatives' children after they thought they'd be empty-nesters. "Family's family," Brenda Hamlin said. "You have to keep family together."

At least 4,000 Vermont children are believed to have a primary caregiver who's a relative but not a biological parent. The number is estimated to be 7.8-million nationwide, up from 4.67-million in 1990, explained Lynn Granger of the non-profit Vermont Kin as Parents. (http://www.vermontkinasparents.org/) "Some of these arrangements are temporary but many are permanent," Granger said.

Vermont Kin as Parents held its annual conference last week in South Burlington, offering legal workshops, tips on raising teens, and sessions on understanding bio-parents' substance abuse. That is a common reason for these households, Granger said. "If all of the children in kinship care were dumped into the child welfare agency, the taxes would not even begin to pay for what supports are needed," she added.

With two waves of kids to get on the school bus, and another to bring to day care, busy grandmother Brenda Hamlin told NECN she does get some public money to help cover household costs, but she said it's not enough. She was quick to point out she is not complaining: "Absolutely not; absolutely not," Hamlin said. "We chose this, my husband and I."

It also meant losing retirement years and even some changed relationships with friends, Hamlin noted. "You just end up being secluded; they think you're crazy."

She said she took on the responsibility for the same reason most every kinship parent does: for the simple knowledge she's giving children with stormy pasts a chance at a brighter future. "That would be wonderful," Hamlin beamed.